Iran To US: We'll Help Fight ISIS If You Lift Nuclear Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks to
the media after closed-door nuclear talks on Iran take place in
Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, July 15, 2014.AP

Iran is ready to join international action against jihadists in
Iraq provided the West lifts crippling sanctions, Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.

His comments followed a call by French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius on Wednesday for all countries in the region, including
Iran, to join the fight against Islamic State (IS) fighters who
have seized swathes of Iraq as well as neighbouring Syria.

"If we agree to do something in Iraq, the other side of the
negotiations should do something in return," the official IRNA
news agency quoted Zarif as saying.

"All the sanctions that are related to Iran's nuclear programme
should be lifted," he said.

It is the first time that Iran has explicitly linked its
readiness to work with the West in Iraq with a lifting of the
crippling EU and US sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

Those sanctions are the subject of ongoing talks between Tehran
and the major powers that are due to resume before the opening of
the UN General Assembly next month.

In return for lifting the sanctions, the Western powers are
demanding that Iran sharply rein in its nuclear programme to ally
international concerns about its ambitions as part of a
comprehensive deal they are seeking to strike by November.

The Iranian foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday that
discussions were under way with several European governments
about the possibility of joint action against IS in Iraq.

Zarif said tough negotiations were still under way over what role
Iran might play in Iraq and what the reward might be for its
cooperation.

"It is still not clear what we have to do in Iraq and what they
have to do in return," the Mehr news agency quoted the Iranian
foreign minister as saying.

"And that's exactly the difficult part."

Iranian and US officials discussed the jihadists' lightning
offensive in Iraq in June on the sidelines of nuclear talks with
the major powers but both sides ruled out joint military action
at the time.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since the
aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, although they have
had contacts over Afghanistan as well as Iraq.